Supergroups, fortunately or unfortunately, always seem to retain the sum of their parts. Given the talent usually assembled in these supergroup functions, you’d hope (nay, expect!) new, fresh, vibrant ideas to be created. But, I guess it’s inevitable: if one-third of King’s X (Ty Tabor), one-fifth of Dream Theater (John Myung), and Rod Morgenstein (I can’t type for long enough to list all of this guy’s credits) come together, you’re going to be listening to a King’s Theater of sorts.

In all fairness, The Jelly Jam is a technical, rock-heavy release with great songs, the vocal harmony of King’s X, and the speedy proficiency of the prog-work world (thanks to Myung and Morgenstein, of course). It’s re-assuring to have a release of this calibre in the collection, if only because a) it is vastly more inspired than the previous incarnation of this project, Platypus (that band featured Derek “I’m on every Magna Carta and InsideOut release” Sherinian), and b) because King’s X has veered off into an eerie/odd/totally organic and experimental vein over their last two records.

Call The Jelly Jam what you may, but when it comes down to it, you’re buying into an upfront King’s record of old (maybe slightly heavier, now that I think about it) and a less Vanden Plas’d version of Dream Theater (yes, I know DT was around before VP). If you’ve found this review to be a jagged, rambling mess then you’re probably a prog-rock fan who’s used to long-winded convolution. And that means you’ll understand the presupposition behind The Jelly Jam taking heaviness and interspersing it between technicality. And then when the band adds straight-up rock n roll elements to make this almost radio friendly, you’ll smile. Goddamn, who would have thought something like this could ever work?

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments